Strawberries And Currant Bushes

It worked for Hillary.

 

If honesty meant doing whatever we're told, then this would still be a British colony.

 

I was surprised when I first read that growing currants and gooseberries was not legal anywhere after about the early 1900's. The old ranch house in northern Idaho where my mom and dad lived when I was born had a large patch of currants, probably wild ones, and there were gooseberries scattered here and there, too.
As a girl growing up , we had a currant bush in the yard, and we lived in town. We proabably didn't have the only currant bushes around, so even if they were illegal back then, I do not think that very many people knew about that, and probably even fewer cared about it.
I had no idea about any of this until I did a search to see if they would grow in Alabama, and found an article about them being illegal. Thankfully, most states now allow both currants and gooseberries again, and since they have also developed varieties that are resistant to the pine tree blister problems, at least those varieties should be okay to grow just about anywhere.
There are no restrictions when you purchase them on ebay, so they seem to ship them anywhere, and it is just the licensed nurseries who have to say where they can't ship them.
Since you are not intending to start a currant farm, @Ken Anderson , it seems to me that adding a few berries that the wildlife could survive on is a good idea.

 

That netting that I put over the strawberry bed has really helped a lot ! We are now finding some nice ripe strawberries out there, and I need to go out in the morning and pick the ripe ones. I have been so busy with other things that strawberry picking just never quite made it to the top of the list, and I have just been stealing a few ripe ones here and there and not picking all of them.
Even the new runners that I planted this spring are starting to get berries on them, and I am expecting my new order of strawberries and the currant bushes to arrive any day now.
The blueberry bushes are looking beautiful and gen; but only one bush has any berries on it at all, and even that one only has a few berries. I found one at Hope Depot that was short and scrawny and barely any leaves; but that little blueberry bush is totally covered in blueberries ! ! Naturally, I bought it. I am keeping it in the pot until the berries get ripe because I was worried that if i replanted it, I might lose the berries.
I am hoping that it will continue to bear like this every year, as well as that it will grow into a nicer looking shrub. Maybe it will help pollinate the other blueberry bushes and they will all start having more berries ?
I noticed that one of my cucumber plants has a blossom on it already, too, and thus far, the tomatoes are growing great; so hopefully this year will turn out to be a better gardening year.

 

Well, the netting works all right, but I am NOT a happy camper.
This morning, I went outside and picked the strawberries that were ripe. However, I also found a poor dead robin who had tried to get the berries and became tangled (badly) in the netting.
I want strawberries nice and fresh; but not if I am going to kill the birds to have them; so I took the netting off. As always, I talked with Bobby about this dilemma when I came back inside.
Bobby thinks that he can build a frame and put some small mesh wire over the berries, which would keep the birds out of the plants; but not trap and kill them. He already had to rescue one robin earlier this week, but this last one we didn't see in time.
I am hoping that once I put the strawberries in the strawberry tower, then I can keep the birds out better, and we might even put it on the porch where they are not so apt to be looking for food.
We both enjoy watching the birds out fluttering around in the birdbath, and make sure that there is fresh water for them to drink; so we sure do not want to harm our little feathered friends.

 

Today, i was outside watering the plants and noticed that we actually have some tiny little green grapes on the vines this year. They are only about the size of a pea right now, and there is not an abundance of them; but this is the first year that we will have had any grapes at all. It takes several years for grapes to produce, and these are from one of the vines I planted several years ago. I don't even remember whether it is purple grapes or one of the red or green varieties; but I guess we will find out this fall.
We also have wild grape vines that grow prolifically every year; but they never seem to have any grapes at all. I do not know why that is. I have been using a few of the wild grape leaves in my green smoothies though, so they are at least good for that, and I keep hoping that we will sometime get some of the wild grapes from the vines.
We have flowers on the cucumber vines, and the tomatoes seem to be growing better this year; so I am hoping that we can actually have some production from both the cukes, the squash and the tomatoes.
I am still waiting for the new strawberries and the currant bushes to arrive; but hopefully, they will get her soon. I need to have them planted before I go to Idaho with Robin the end of the month.

 

My bushes and plants all arrived this morning. The rain has stopped and the sun is out; so I am working on getting everything planted before I go to Idaho next week.
I am going to share the asparagus plants with Robin, and we can plant those for her when I spend the night there next week before we leave on our early morning flight out west.
I want to make a strawberry tower from the plastic laundry hamper; but I am not going to start that until I get back home. I think that it might be nice to have it on the back deck once Bobby has one built; and since it will be heavy once it is filled with dirt, I want to construct it where it is going to stay permanently.
For now, I will put the berry plants in containers, and then I can easily transplant them later. Something like this picture is what I have in mind.


Edit to add: I have everything planted now except for the asparagus that is going to my daughter's house , and I have it in a planter with dirt for a temporary home for those. I see little green sprouts on some of the currants, roses, and a few of the strawberries; so hopefully, with some sunshine and rain, pretty soon they will be leafing out.

 

I have decided to try strawberries again. After the bird-killing episode, I just kind of gave up having the berries. Anyway, what I am going to do is get one of those little $50 greenhouses from. Amazon, and grow the strawberries indies of there, where the birds are not as apt to get to them. I will have them in the back yard, and the dogs seem to keep the squirrels chased out of there, so possibly, we will have strawberries this year.
I just ordered more strawberry plants, and I am looking forward to warm weather and being able to plant them this spring.

 

I have wondered how that would be in the little green house in summer; but if it turns out we can’t grow strawberries in it, then I will just use it as a spring greenhouse to start other plants.
I should be able to leave the door open, so air can circulate, and I am going to put it in front of Bobby’s shop on the east side, where it will get morning sun and be sheltered by the building from the hot afternoon sun.
The information said it can be used in the summer with the door open.

I ordered two types of berries, one is an everbearing called Seaside (or maybe seascape ?) and they can grow fine in Hawaii, which gets hot in summer, too.
The other one is a June-bearing variety, especially developed for the heat/humidity of the south; so hopefully at least some of them will grow and have berries.